Link Exchange

A link exchange is a trade where two websites agree to text link to each other. Usually link exchanges are done as part of a "link farm" setup - a way to deceive Google and other search engines into thinking that the site is being heavily linked to because it has great content. In years past, many questionable sites obtained very high rankings in Google because Google's automated utilities would see hundreds of links going into a site and figure that the site must be of high value.

Because of these deceptive practices, Google and other engines now heavily penalize - and often completely ban - sites that participate in link farming.

BellaOnline has always received a very high ranking from Google, often if not usually occupying the #1 search result location. We have achieved this high quality rating for several reasons. First, our site has been around for over ten years and has a proven track record of high quality content. Next, our site provides hundreds of thousands of pages of this quality content, each written by a human being on the topic it claims to be about. We never try to trick users with inappropriate content or with ad links disguised as content links. Finally, our site gets over 20 million pageviews a month from visitors who return frequently. Our visitors have in essence voted for us with their clicks, showing Google and other engines that we are a resource worth returning to.

For all of these reasons, BellaOnline can never participate in any link farm or link exchange. To do so would risk our quality ratings both with search engines and with our visitors. We cannot jeopardize the great trust placed in us by entering into any arrangement that could be questioned by search engines.

Please note that this policy includes schemes where people give us content in exchange for free links to them. The purpose of BellaOnline is to help our writers learn how to be skilled web gurus and to write weekly content. If we ran externally written content with link exchanges at the bottom of the articles, we would be doubly hurt. First, we would be damaged by the link exchange - we would be sending people off-site and boosting their Google ranking with no benefit to us. Second, our writers we are training would be damaged as their value as "THE writer on topic xxxxx" was diluted. We never want other named authors displayed on BellaOnline and "competing" with our writers who we are training.

If you wish to enter into an advertising arrangement with us, that is quite fine! Ads are always clearly labelled as ads, and are accepted by both visitors and search engines as such. Feel free to read the other pages in this area to understand further how our advertising system works.